The Present Continuous / Progressive John is in his car He is in his way to work He is driving to work This means he is driving now: “at the time of speaking” This is the present continuous The past continuous (progressive) tense This page will present the present continuous: • its form • and its use You may also be interested by the past continuous The form of the present continuous tense The verb to be (in the simple present) verb + ing The affirmative forms of the present continuous: I am eating ’m You, we, they are ’re He, she, it is 's The interrogative forms of the present continuous Am I Are you, we, they Is he, she, it eating? The negative forms of the present continuous I am not eating ’m not You, we, they are not aren't He, she, it is not isn't The use of the present continuous tense • • The present continuous is used to talk about actions happening at the time of speaking Example: o Where is Mary? She is having a bath (Not she has a bath) o What are you doing at the moment in front of your screen? Don't you know? Well … you are reading this lesson You are learning English The present continuous can also be used when an action has started but hasn’t finished yet Example: o I am reading a book; it’s a nice book (It means = I am not necessarily reading it; I started reading it but I haven’t finished it yet Special verbs There are verbs which are normally not used in the present continuous Examples: be, believe, belong, hate, hear, like, love, mean, prefer, remain, realize, see, seem, smell, think, understand, want, wish It's not correct to say: He is wanting to buy a new car.* You must say: He wants to buy a new car